[Cogan's syndrome with angitis of cranial nerves, aortitis, endocarditis, and glomerulonephritis (author's transl)].

A 34-year-old woman died of left-heart failure due to combinated aortic-valve disease three years after manifestation of Cogan's syndrome characterized by sudden inner-ear deafness, loss of equilibrium, interstitial keratitis, and progressive loss of vision during pregnancy. At necropsy there was evidence of recurrent endocarditis of the aortic valves with stenosis and regurgitation, severe angitis of the thoracic aorta with marked secondary sclerosing changes as the cause of the heart failure. Angitis within the optical fasciculus and stato-acoustic nerve was the cause of the vestibular and optical defects. Primary changes in the visual and auditory cortices, the retina and inner ear were excluded as causes. There was also acute membrano-proliferative glomerulonephritis, which may have been coincidental.